Carousel of pitchers leads Cougars to scoreless disaster against Rice

The Cougars went hitless until the seventh inning. | Courtesy of UH Athletics

The Rice Owls blew out the Cougars 9-0 at home on Tuesday after hitting in seven runs in the first inning alone. With this game, Rice went up to a 10-21 overall record and struck first blood in the Silver Glove Series. Houston fell to a 20-8 overall record.

The crosstown rivalry will continue next Tuesday at Rice’s Reckling Park at 6:30 p.m.

The problems with the game started on Monday when Kendall Rogers from D1baseball.com reported that junior pitcher Seth Romero was taken out of the starting rotation due to violating team travel policy.

Cumbie currently ranks as the No. 8 pitcher in the NCAA in terms of ERA (.73).

Tuesday was Henry’s second start at the collegiate level, and he left before finishing the first inning after allowing seven runs on just six hits.

The Cougars went through five pitchers before the night was done and didn’t find any stability until the fifth inning. Rice scored a run in the third and fourth innings before going scoreless for the rest of the game.

Freshman Tyler Bielamowicz proved himself on the mound as he pitched 3.1 hitless innings with two strikeouts.

The Cougars didn’t fare much better at bat either, as they racked up only three hits. They went hitless until the bottom of the seventh inning with a single from sophomore center-fielder Grayson Padgett.

Junior Corey Julks did continue his 12-game hit streak.

The Cougars resume conference play this weekend as they host ECU from Friday through Sunday at Schroeder Park. The games on Friday and Saturday are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and Sunday’s match is scheduled for 1 p.m.